Mental fatigue increases across a 16-week pre-season in elite female athletes

Suzanna Russell; David G Jenkins; Shona L Halson; Vincent G Kelly

doi:10.1016/j.jsams.2021.12.002

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Mental fatigue increases across a 16-week pre-season in elite female athletes

Journal article

Peer reviewed

Mental fatigue increases across a 16-week pre-season in elite female athletes

Suzanna Russell, David G Jenkins, Shona L Halson and Vincent G Kelly

Journal of Science and Medicine in Sport, Vol.25(4), pp.356-361

2022

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jsams.2021.12.002

PMID: 35027320

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Abstract

Cognition

Athlete wellbeing

Fatigue

Mental performance

Perception

Training

Objectives: To examine potential changes in mental and physical fatigue across an elite netball pre-season training phase and relationships between mental fatigue, physical fatigue, salivary cortisol (sCort) and alpha-amylase (sAA). Design: Observational with repeated measures. Methods: Across a 16-week pre-season, 10 elite female netballers (25.3 ± 3.7y) rated their physical fatigue, mental fatigue and readiness to perform on 100-mm visual analogue scales, and provided salivary samples for sCort and sAA analyses. Results: Linear mixed model analyses revealed elevated (p < 0.05) ratings of mental fatigue for weeks 12, 14 and 15 v 1; 12, 14 and 15 v 4 and 14 v 7. Higher (p < 0.05) ratings of physical fatigue were reported on weeks 6, 10, 11 and 12–16 compared to week 4; and 10 and 13 compared to week 7. Moderate and large ES differences were found between multiple weeks. Mental and physical fatigue demonstrated a shared variance of 14.3% (r = 0.38, p < 0.001) and an inverse relationship was observed between mental fatigue and readiness to perform (r = −0.50; p < 0.001). Changes in sCort nor sAA were not related to changes in mental or physical fatigue. Conclusions: Mental fatigue fluctuated across the 16-week pre-season phase with elevated ratings observed in the later weeks. Whilst value remains in identifying subjective tools to assess mental fatigue; salivary biomarkers do not appear to be a suitable objective indicator of mental fatigue in the applied sporting environment. Practitioners should work to identify and manage mental fatigue with the same level of importance given to the periodisation of physical fatigue.

Details

Title: Mental fatigue increases across a 16-week pre-season in elite female athletes
Authors: Suzanna Russell (Author) - The University of Queensland
David G Jenkins (Author) - University of the Sunshine Coast, Queensland, School of Health and Behavioural Sciences - Legacy
Shona L Halson (Author) - Australian Catholic University
Vincent G Kelly (Author) - Queensland University of Technology
Publication details: Journal of Science and Medicine in Sport, Vol.25(4), pp.356-361
Publisher: Elsevier Australia
Date published: 2022
DOI: 10.1016/j.jsams.2021.12.002
ISSN: 1878-1861
PMID: 35027320
Organisation Unit: University of the Sunshine Coast, Queensland; School of Health and Behavioural Sciences - Legacy
Language: English
Record Identifier: 99603206702621
Output Type: Journal article

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Collaboration types: Domestic collaboration
Web Of Science research areas: Sport Sciences